This book felt a bit different than the other three. Okay, actually, it felt a lot different. For starters, the “problem” that the main character/narrator was having wasn’t obvious right from the beginning like in the others. In fact, it took almost until the very end of the book until we realize exactly what’s going on with him. Plus, he’s not being tapped to become one of the Riders, so it’s a much different dynamic between him and Death than the narrators of the other books.

The premise of this book was a bit lacking, but the way that Estep wrote it managed to make it work for me. The whole “quest for an antidote” thing feels a bit overdone, especially when you know that someone’s going to be waiting to ambush you. But there were a few twists that, while being hinted at ahead of time, were still fun and managed to make the story work.

I think that this book kind of re-sold me on the series. I was starting to get a bit annoyed with Gwen always being stupid and having to be saved by others, and everything being so predictable, and Crimson Frost finally addressed some of those concerns for me. It still wasn’t the most original and unexpected thing I’ve ever read, but it was at least better than the last few books.